Opinion + Conference season 2008 | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+series/conferenceseason2008
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David Clark: the Tories are acting like they will win the next electionhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/05/conservatives.davidcameron
For the first time in donkeys' years, the Conservatives are acting like they will win the next election<p>I have been attending party political conferences for 24 years, but never in the belief that they had the capacity to move public opinion in any significant way. That all changed last year with a spectacular lurch from boom to bust as Gordon Brown seemed to build an election winning poll lead one week only to have it snatched away by David Cameron the next. This year has been nothing like as dramatic, but there is nevertheless a sense that something has changed and that the assumptions of a fortnight ago are no longer valid.</p><p>Of course, this hasn't happened in a bubble. It is events in the outside world in the form of a major financial crisis that have made it possible. What the coincidence of the conference season has done is to magnifying the political impact of the global economic turmoil. <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/gordon_brown_conference">Brown</a> started his conference week with many people wondering whether he would survive what had by then become an open campaign to depose him as Labour leader. By the end, he had recovered at least some of the passion and purpose that has been so conspicuously missing over the last year. The question that has plagued him for most of that period – "what is Brown for?" – now has a plausible answer. His age, his seriousness and his reputation as a bit of an egghead now seem less of a problem.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/05/conservatives.davidcameron">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesDavid CameronConservative conferenceLabourLabour conferenceUK newsLabour conference 2008Conservative conference 2008Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/05/conservatives.davidcameronDavid Clark2008-10-05T11:00:00ZDave Hill: At the Conservative party conference Iain Duncan Smith made a convincing case for fixing the 'broken societyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/conservatives.toryconference1
While David Cameron likes to talk about our 'broken society', Iain Duncan Smith is calling more audibly for it to be fixed<p>I didn't like David Cameron's speech. The glum yet somehow comfortable indifference I'd slumped into at the prospect of one centre-right party replacing another in power was disturbed by the Conservative leader's summoning of the spirit of Thatcher. His attempt to portray himself as an iron-sided national saviour-in-waiting was fanciful – most parallels with the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7598647.stm">troubles of the late 70s</a> are trite – and deserves to backfire on him, as it might. A focus group filmed by BBC News found his invoking of the unbalanced ex-leaderene a turn off. One member of it blamed her for many of our present woes. That overstated her importance, but her invincible ignorance made a baleful contribution to the very social ills her latest successor as top Tory reckons to cure.</p><p>Young Dave's contrived effort paled by comparison with that of one of the dud leaders he's replaced. The previous morning, Iain Duncan Smith, clumsy and hoarse as ever, had urged the conference to "get out there and sell" his agenda for fixing the broken bits of Britain. IDS may have the style of a distracted heifer and the charisma of a pre-war sideboard, but while Cameron used the word "society" repeatedly, the <a href="http://politics.theguardian.com/person/0,,-1495,00.html">Chingford reformer</a> showed a superior grasp of how and why a real society fails to work.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/conservatives.toryconference1">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesConservative conferencePoliticsConservative conference 2008Iain Duncan SmithThu, 02 Oct 2008 12:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/conservatives.toryconference1Dave Hill2008-10-02T12:30:00ZMartin Kettle: Battle of the bubbles at this year's party conferenceshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/libdemconference.labourconference
In a strange conference season overshadowed by events in the world outside party politics, Labour has fared better than the Tories<p>In most years, most of the political parties get an immediate opinion poll bounce from the party conferences. In most years, however, the bounce soon disappears. By November and December, public opinion reverts more or less to where it was in July and August.<br> <br>Some years, however, it is different. Labour went into the party conferences of 2007 still basking in Gordon Brown's flood and bomb fuelled honeymoon. By the end of the three week party bunfight, however, David Cameron had rescued the Tories and put them into an opinion poll lead which has rarely faltered ever since.<br> <br>And 2008? This has been an extraordinary conference season, but less because of what has happened at the three gatherings than because of what has been happening in the world beyond. The closest comparison in recent times must be 2001, when 9/11 eclipsed everything that happened to the British political parties.<br> <br>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/marketturmoil">global financial implosion</a> has dominated the 2008 conference season. It has left the parties marginal to events. The sense of being in a bubble, always a problem even in less momentous conference seasons, has been even more extreme this year. The parties have tried to get a hearing, but they are walk-ons in a larger drama now, a bit like the character in the Stendhal novel who hopes he is taking part in the Battle of Waterloo but isn't entirely sure.<br> <br>So, what is the verdict? It seems an awfully long time ago since we were all in Bournemouth for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+politics/libdemconference">Liberal Democrats</a>, and it seemed at times an unusually futile place to be. Yet the LibDems have had a good conference season. They've got Vince Cable, the Ronaldo of the party battle, the politician every party wishes they had in their team right now. Cable matters because, alone among frontbench finance spokesmen, he got this crisis right while the others got it wrong. The LibDems' determination to become a party offering tax cuts to ordinary families also looks particularly sensible in the light of more recent events.<br> <br><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+politics/labourconference">Labour</a> had a bad conference, dominated by leadership speculation and climaxing with an overrated speech by Gordon Brown. But events have been kinder. Brown is the one party leader who is currently fighting for his political life. The financial crisis has given him a lifeline, enabling him to reprise his role as Mr Trusty, even though there is a good case for saying he is Mr Blameworthy. Brown came into the conference season as the most unpopular Labour prime minister ever at the head of the most unpopular Labour government in history. He may yet be that again. But not now. To that extent, and however fleetingly, he is the big winner of this strange season.<br> <br>And <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+politics/toryconference">the Tories</a>? My view, certainly not generally shared, is that the Tories panicked this week. They came to Birmingham focused on rebutting Brown's wounding charge that this is no time for a novice. For 36 hours they carried out their mission with great effect. Then, fatally in my view, they stopped and wondered how it all looked in the 24/7 news cycle. The bail-out vote in Washington freaked them out and they overnight switched to being statesmanlike and supportive of Brown in a system which makes that difficult and with a prime minister who is tribal to his gnawed fingertips.<br> <br>The winners of the last three weeks, therefore, have been Labour. The Liberal Democrats have come second, and the Tories have been the losers. A month from now it may — I think it will — look very different. For now, though, the big change wrought by the conference season is that Labour is back in the game, even if only for a while.</p><p>These three weeks have been a bit like a political battle fought amid the fog and noise of war. The protagonists lunge and parry, charge and retreat, almost by instinct. Where they will all be when the fog lifts and the whole battlefield becomes visible, neither they nor we can say. All we do know is that, wherever the parties then find themselves, they will all claim victory and all pretend that they have ended up exactly where they always intended to be.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/libdemconference.labourconference">Continue reading...</a>Liberal Democrat conference 2008Liberal Democrat conferenceLabour conferenceConservative conferencePoliticsUK newsLabour conference 2008Conservative conference 2008Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/02/libdemconference.labourconferenceMartin Kettle2008-10-02T07:00:01ZJohn Harris: Tory posters are now ripping off the iconography of socialist revolutionhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/politicsandthearts.conservatives
Not content with claiming leftwing music, Tory posters are now ripping off the iconography of socialist revolution<p>First, they came for our language: social exclusion, inequality, redistribution, and now the great socialist idea of the big plan (as in "plan for change"). Then, they raided our music: the Smiths, the Jam, even Billy Bragg. Now, they want our art.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/politicsandthearts.conservatives">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesConservative conferencePoliticsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:35:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/politicsandthearts.conservativesJohn Harris2008-10-01T20:35:17ZDerek Draper: The enemy withouthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.conservatives
The Tories' slick PR falls apart under scrutiny, as I've discovered in Birmingham<p>Needless to say, the rightwing blogosphere has been in its usual hateful tizz about my arrival at Birmingham. Guido Fawkes claims that I was wearing a Haiwaiian shirt. It was in fact a plain beige number from Uniqlo. He was right about me wearing sandals, though, so we apparently we can trust half of what he says. One day I hope to look as handsome and cool as <a href="http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:Y8b1zoL0ZVAJ:schmoontherun.blogspot.com/2008/01/guido-fawkes-exposes-himself.html+%22guido+fawkes+exposes+himself%22&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;cd=1&amp;gl=uk">he does</a>. Incidentally, if you check out the <a href="http://www.order-order.com/2008/09/rapid-rebuttal-unit-arrives-in-person.html">posts</a> after his little dig, you will be genuinely appalled. None are really political; most are deeply offensive, and several are homophobic and obscene. And they try and claim they are no longer the nasty party.</p><p>Much nicer about me, of course, was the "gentleman of cyber space" <a href="http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/09/conference-diary-tuesday-3.html">Iain Dale</a>, whom I bumped into outside the conference hall. He was asking about the internet rebuttal unit I am <a href="http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/848968/Labour-Tories-plot-dominate-blogosphere/">supposedly setting up</a>. That's not quite the whole story, but there's no doubt Labour supporters do need to do more to make our case in all media – the party's new <a href="http://www.labour.org.uk/home">website</a> is a great start. This is worth a visit just to see the excellent ads that have been developed asking Cameron the tough questions he's yet to answer.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.conservatives">Continue reading...</a>Conservative conferenceConservativesPoliticsUK newsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.conservativesDerek Draper2008-10-01T19:30:01ZSarfraz Manzoor: Who controls the past?https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/britishidentity.toryconference
History, and how to teach it, enrages and engages grassroots Tories like nothing else<p>They used to enjoy pondering the weather. These days the British appear to like nothing better than to talk about Britishness. Yesterday's <a href="http://www.hlf.org.uk/english">Heritage Lottery Fund</a> fringe event on the subject was packed. It was easily the most lively, passionate and humorous fringe event I have attended, in sharp contrast to the limp discussion on the same topic held in Manchester last week. As someone who is not of the Tory tribe, it was deeply illuminating to see what enrages and engages grassroots Tories, and I now know the answer: history.</p><p>Lord Baker, better known as Kenneth Baker, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1572148/It's-time-for-a-museum-of-British-history.html">wants to establish</a> a Museum of British History that would tell the story of Britain. What was missing these days, he argued, was a collective memory, a sense of the struggle and victories that led to us all exercising the liberties we enjoy. I can see some virtues in such a museum but cannot help suspecting that those who would learn most from it would be the least likely to visit. The more significant obstacle is how to include the more troubling aspects of British history into a museum or any narrative of Britishness. It is all very well rhapsodising about Shakespeare, Tom Paine or Constable, but what does that say to someone whose family has arrived more recently? It is something that I have often felt: I can admire many British writers, inventors, explorers and so on, but I find it hard to feel I am more than a spectator to the story. The audience in the session had little time for this sentiment, hissing and shaking their heads when <a href="http://www.wilfredej.com/">Wilfred Emmanuel Jones</a>, prospective parliamentary candidate for Chippenham and black farmer, suggested that he felt more comfortable with a more modern version of Britishness than one that dwelt only on the past.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/britishidentity.toryconference">Continue reading...</a>British identity and societyConservative conferencePoliticsUK newsConservativesEducation policyConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:03:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/britishidentity.toryconferenceSarfraz Manzoor2008-10-01T17:03:33ZJackie Ashley: Seriously middle of the roadhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference2
Presenting a sober image in troubled times, Cameron's speech offers hope to Labour<p>Well, we certainly learned something from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference1">David Cameron's third speech to this conference</a>. He can do drab. There was so little sparkle, so little wit. Here is a man who has ridden towards power on a magic carpet of optimism – and optimism is always good – but who now finds himself back down on the ground, looking for a new path for bleaker times.</p><p>Let's start with the positive. Cameron sounds like a decent man. His displays of anger, whether about the mistreatment of British soldiers, or small businesses throttled by bureaucracy, or those who have been failed by the NHS or the justice system, sounded genuine and were well directed. It was good to hear him calling for more flexible working for women, on the dangers of libertarianism, and the importance of corporate responsibility. He conceded other parties did good things, and his own could make mistakes. He addressed the sleaze stories that have embarrassed the Tories.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference2">Continue reading...</a>David CameronConservative conferencePoliticsUK newsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:41:56 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference2Jackie Ashley2008-10-01T16:41:56ZMichael White: Birmingham is on a roll, and David 'Two Brains' Willetts thinks he knows whyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.davidwilletts
Birmingham is on a roll, and David 'Two Brains' Willetts thinks he knows why<p>The Tory conference is being staged in Birmingham this week. The cabinet met here three weeks ago. Labour's spring conference was held here too. What in the name of Middle Britain is going on? And what has it to do with JRR Tolkein? More than you might think.</p><p>Westminster politicians talk a lot more about decentralising Britain's over-centralised state than they actually do about it, though Labour has devolved considerable powers to the three Celtic regions and polyglot London, always too big a city for the size of country whose capital it is.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.davidwilletts">Continue reading...</a>Conservative conferenceDavid WillettsConservativesPoliticsLocal politicsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:33:22 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/toryconference.davidwillettsMichael White2008-10-01T16:33:22ZWilfred Emmanuel-Jones: Being black and a Conservative shouldn't behttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.race
Black Conservatives have, in the past, stayed hidden away – but now we're putting our heads above the parapet<p>Walking up to the security zone on my first day at <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/toryconference">conference</a> it was dark, and I have to confess my badge was not clearly visible. As I approached, a very helpful member of staff thought they would save my legs and shouted, "You've got to be a Tory to get in there." I fished out my badge to prove I was.</p><p>That I was a black guy admitting to being a Tory totally confused the poor man. I am used to this kind of reaction and many a time I find myself having to ferociously defend why it is possible to be black and a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/conservatives">Conservative</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.race">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesRace issuesConservative conferencePoliticsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:22:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.raceWilfred Emmanuel-Jones2008-10-01T15:22:52ZJohn Harris: The Conservative party's message of change doesn't stand up to scrutinyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.equality
For all the talk of change a Tory government might deliver, the consistency of their message stands little scrutiny<p>Last night, a funny thing happened on the way to the fringe. Just outside one of Conservative conference's more marginal venues, I was confronted with a rum spectacle indeed: a large gaggle of young men, uniformly dressed in crisp dark suits, speaking in cut-glass accents, and evidently educated at some of Britain's more expensive schools. They oozed a self-belief that bordered on the belligerent, they were all smoking fantastically large cigars, and they rather suggested people playing the baddies in an <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001178/&quot;">Eisenstein film</a>. If this year's event has been suddenly reinvented as a self-consciously humble summit about the new age of austerity, no one had told them.</p><p>I was there for a meeting titled "Making money work for hard-working families" and focused on the privations of life at the bottom – and, for some reason, none of the cigar-smoking posse showed up. Instead, I listened to Mark Hoban, the shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, who joined his fellow panellists in talking about "financial capability" – the stuff of helping vulnerable people to master budgets and bank accounts. Eventually, however, temptation got the better of me, and I asked him about something that's been bugging me all week: given their new-found enthusiasm for talking about poverty and social exclusion, how come the Tories have so little to say about low pay?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.equality">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesPaySocial mobilityConservative conferencePoliticsSocial exclusionConferencesChildrenConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:30:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.equalityJohn Harris2008-10-01T14:30:14ZJenni Russell: Tory plans on welfare are superficialhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.communities
The Tory discussion on welfare reform was thoughtful. Then Chris Grayling showed his hand<p><a href="http://www.chrisgrayling.net/">Chris Grayling</a>, the Tories' welfare spokesman, is known as the attack dog within the party – the man Cameron unleashes when his own sweet-and-reasonable approach won't do. And Grayling looks the part; lean, hungry, and almost bare-skulled. So it seemed to be running against the grain for Grayling to make the first part of his presentation to conference an emotional, empathetic one about the difficulties facing children and adults in tough communities. This doesn't feel like Grayling's forte. As he emoted warmth and sympathy, I couldn't help being reminded of the wolf struggling to charm Red Riding Hood before he eats her all up.</p><p>There were good things in his presentation. A stream of committed community workers came on to talk convincingly about how their small projects were offering practical and emotional support to underparented children, or isolated mothers, or angry teenagers. There was no question that many of these were reaching the parts of society that the welfare state can't touch.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.communities">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesCommunitiesWelfareConservative conferencePoliticsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:31:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.communitiesJenni Russell2008-10-01T13:31:13ZAnne Perkins: Sarah Brown and Samantha Cameron: the perfect wiveshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/cherieblair.women
Not like that awful Cherie! Just don't mention the £5.70 Smythson Christmas card<p>Somehow, Cherie Blair never judges the loyal wife bit quite right. A week after <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/25/women.gordonbrown">Sarah Brown</a> gave what might be the definitive interpretation of the part, and just as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/sep/28/conservatives.politics">Samantha Cameron</a> prepares to deliver her take on it, Cherie has told <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/11/cherie200811?currentPage=2">Vanity Fair</a> that her husband will rank with Churchill. Loyal, yes. But well-judged?</p><p>It's always surprising when an intelligent person can say the right thing and the wrong thing almost in the same breath. For she also remarks that she blew it in the prime ministerial wife's role. "Just look at the press cuttings," she tells the magazine. "You couldn't say it was a triumph, could you?"</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/cherieblair.women">Continue reading...</a>Cherie BlairWomen in politicsConservativesConservative conferenceLabourPoliticsGenderConservative conference 2008Sarah BrownSamantha CameronWed, 01 Oct 2008 12:03:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/cherieblair.womenAnne Perkins2008-10-01T12:03:05ZAnne Perkins: Hazel Blears positively glowed among the Tories in Birminghamhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/hazelblears.toryconference
Hazel Blears minced up Tory hecklers as she made an appearance on the fringe in Birmingham this week<p>Small and red headed, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/hazelblears">Hazel Blears</a> was the Squirrel Nutkin of the 1997 intake: bright eyed, harmless and relentlessly, exhaustingly cheerful. To new Labour sceptics, she epitomised the naivety of the women and the upbeat apolitical postivism of the Blairites. In the Commons she was the one who asked the most egregious planted questions. In the studios, she was the first choice of broadcasters seeking a central-casting government supporter. But for all her conspicuous loyalty, it has been a long toil to the sunlit uplands of cabinet.</p><p>This past month, though, something has happened to brand Blears, and it's not just stirring from the uber-Tory Michael Gove, who pronounced her "excellent" and a suitable candidate for a Cameron cabinet of all the talents.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/hazelblears.toryconference">Continue reading...</a>Hazel BlearsConservative conferenceConservativesPoliticsLabourConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:45:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/hazelblears.toryconferenceAnne Perkins2008-10-01T11:45:17ZAnne Perkins: Tory women say hands off Sure Starthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.toryconference
They want to keep the early years scheme, even if the Conservative leadership doesn't<p>Of all the parts of the Tory party revived by David Cameron's detoxification strategy, the <a href="http://www.conservativewomen.org.uk/">Women's Organisation</a> has to be among the front runners. The days when Tory women walked a couple of paces behind their husbands at conferences and appeared silently alongside them at selection conferences died at the time of – if not because of – Margaret Thatcher, along with large hats and summer gloves. But catching up with the idea of selecting more women in winnable seats and tackling discrimination as an issue of social justice has taken a little longer.</p><p>Slowly though (that's slow like a glacier is slow) things have changed. The key moment might have been a fringe in a gloomy Blackpool foyer back in 2003 when a feisty Ann Jenkins, replete with tiara in preparation for the party ball later that night, demanded action on women candidates, and won an unprecedented roar of support.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.toryconference">Continue reading...</a>ConservativesConservative conferenceUK newsEarly years educationChildcareSocietyChildrenConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:00:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/conservatives.toryconferenceAnne Perkins2008-10-01T10:00:17ZDenis MacShane: The Tories are foreign-policy lightweightshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/foreignpolicy.conservatives
Cameron's Conservatives have cobbled together a reactionary set of measures which would weaken the UK's standing abroad<p>By this stage in the political-electoral cycle it would be reasonable to assume that a coherent international policy would be on offer from the Conservative party. Yet as ambassadors and international observers turn up in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/toryconference">Birmingham</a> they will find prejudice in place of policy and a revival of the worst failures of both John Major's and Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy still embedded in Tory thinking.</p><p>Compared to 1995 or 1996, when Tony Blair and Robin Cook had completely reshaped Labour's international rhetoric to ditch the Euroscepticism of the 1980s and the hostility to open trade of the Labour left as well as promoting a strong pro-American partnership, today's Tories have not the hard thinking about what to do if they take control of Britain's foreign policy.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/foreignpolicy.conservatives">Continue reading...</a>Foreign policyConservativesConservative conferenceEuropean UnionNatoWilliam HagueUK newsConservative conference 2008Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:00:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/foreignpolicy.conservativesDenis MacShane2008-10-01T09:00:50ZMarcel Berlins on Britain's walk-on-by society and remembering the Holocausthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/communities.britishidentity
<p>When you analyse the parable, the good Samaritan's deed was not all that impressive. Its moral superiority came about because a priest and a Levite - biblical forerunners of today's walk-on-by society - had ignored the wounded man by the roadside while the Samaritan had stopped, tended to his wounds, taken care of him and paid for his accommodation. But he did not put his own life or safety at risk, and he made no great sacrifices. Had he come across the man while the robbers were still beating him up, would the Samaritan have intervened? Would the robbers have turned their violence on him? The Bible is silent. </p><p>More would have been expected of him today. Our society, or rather that part of it still adhering to moral principles, would require him to rush to the aid of strangers being assaulted, robbed or molested, without thought of personal risk. If he spotted a theft or burglary he would confront the perpetrators; and he would intervene if he saw people fighting. Last Sunday, Frank McGarahan, a senior bank executive, tried bravely to stop a street brawl in Norwich and was beaten to death for his trouble. Yesterday, coincidentally, at the Conservative party conference, the shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve called for an end to the walk-on-by culture and promised that a Tory government would render have-a-go heroes immune from prosecution. He had in mind a number of cases where a well-meaning and courageous citizen doing his duty to society by attempting to stop or prevent a crime finds himself in the dock, perhaps accused of assault because he had laid a hand on the miscreant. A recent report by the thinktank Reform concluded that over-zealous application of the criminal law had made Britain a nation of passive bystanders. A survey showed that the British were less likely to intervene to stop a crime than the nationals of every other European country. Not a record to be proud of. Grieve is right to want to remove the injustice of a system which allows the laudable civic-minded citizen to be punished more severely than the criminals themselves. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/communities.britishidentity">Continue reading...</a>British identity and societyCrimeUK newsConservativesConservative conferenceDominic GrieveConservative conference 2008Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/communities.britishidentityMarcel Berlins2008-09-30T23:01:00ZSimon Jenkins: Cameron must show he can go beyond Blairite gimmickshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference
The scope for today's speech is limited. But the Tory leader has to prove he is about more than facile council tax pledges<p>Never be in opposition in time of war. When in danger the nation always puts its faith in authority. There were no marks for attacking Churchill before D-day or Thatcher before San Carlos. Whoever is to blame for this week's scenes on world stockmarkets, only the most churlish anarchist would welcome them.</p><p>Hence David Cameron has an unenviable task in his speech today to his party conference in Birmingham. The British banking system is in systemic collapse. When it loses credit, when interest in futurity is sacrificed to daily survival, all wealth is at risk.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference">Continue reading...</a>David CameronConservative conferenceEconomic policyTax and spendingPoliticsConservative conference 2008Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconferenceSimon Jenkins2008-09-30T23:01:00ZEditorial: Stopping the slow trainhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/transport.conservatives
<p>The Conservative party sweetened the gruel of its bitter economic message this week with a promise Labour should have made long ago - to build a high-speed rail network north from London. The party confirmed a second sensible decision too - to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow. Those wise choices may be spoilt by a third Tory proposal, from London's Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, to relocate the capital's main airport to an artificial island in the Thames estuary, at unknown financial and environmental cost. But Mr Johnson's airport is a daydream, while plans for a new fast rail line are real; the problem is paying for it.</p><p>The Treasury has been frightened away from high-speed rail by the cost and by the fact that the taxpayer ended up underwriting the first fast link from London to the Channel tunnel, when the idea was that the private sector would pay. In operational terms that link has been a success, built on time and on budget. It is now quicker to travel by train from the capital to Brussels than to Manchester. No one doubts that a similar route could be extended north - roughly parallel to the overburdened existing west coast line. That line could then be handed over to local traffic and a greatly expanded freight service, taking much strain from the M1 and M6 roads. Unfortunately this week's flimsy Tory document skirts round the cost and makes debatable claims about the environmental and economic merits of the new line. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/transport.conservatives">Continue reading...</a>Transport policyConservativesConservative conferencePoliticsTransportUK newsConservative conference 2008Rail transportTue, 30 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/transport.conservativesEditorial2008-09-30T23:01:00ZMichael White's political briefing: The new party of City regulation and early nightshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference1
<p>David Cameron reads enough history books to know that a sudden public mood swing can wrong-foot an opposition as easily as it can a government. As financial volatility deepens, his poll lead over Gordon Brown has dipped like a FTSE share price. So all week in Birmingham Cameron has been struggling to reposition the Tories as the party of stern City regulation, sensible pay and early nights, acutely aware that voters' attention is focused elsewhere. He almost cancelled the conference. Instead, his well-judged holding statement, as bipartisan as George Osborne's smirk-free assault on Brownism was not on Monday, kept the Tory leader in play as a potential PM. Its tone was shrewd.</p><p>But how much deeper does the Tory wrong-footing go now that prospects for the British economy - along with everyone else's - look far darker than they did a month ago? Yesterday was Broken Britain day in Birmingham. Cameron has backtracked from that sweeping condemnation, but his rhetoric and policy agenda does not. The party's latest Plan for Change document rests on assumptions which crashed with Wall Street. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference1">Continue reading...</a>David CameronConservative conferencePoliticsTax and spendingConservative conference 2008Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/davidcameron.toryconference1Michael White2008-09-30T23:01:00ZJohn Harris: What will the Tories do when Middle England complains?https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/toryconference.conservatives1
If the Conservatives win the next election and the economy falters further, will they still be emphasising the plight of the poor?<p>I spent the first part of this morning up in the Birmingham Convention Centre's cheap seats, among a crowd that the Conservatives' stage-managers are perhaps trying to obscure from view: long-standing party activists, at conference for the umpteenth time, and this year understandably excited by the prospect of power. They were there to watch Iain Duncan Smith's presentation on what we must now call social justice. It was a mixture of Powerpoint and crusading zeal, focused on somehow saving "the next generation" of socially excluded youth, which climaxed with a pretty fascinating spectacle: IDS pleading with his audience to avoid the hang-'em-and-flog-'em imperatives of yesteryear, and do their best to ensure that politicians did the same. No matter that these were the same people who, back in the 1980s and 1990s, habitually applauded the very opposite message. They cheered him to the rafters.</p><p>The trouble is, just as you sense the darkening economic backdrop squashing what remains of the Tories' green credentials, so the prospect of a chronic downturn hovers menacingly over their current habit of emphasising the plight of the poor. Yes, the concept of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6281350.stm">broken society</a> is still in the foreground, and plenty of Tory mood music – as with this year's <a href="http://www.birminghammail.net/2008/09/29/david-cameron-on-the-conservative-party-conference-97319-21922535/">"social action"</a> exercise, focused on a Birmingham housing estate – skilfully points it up, but much more seismic political shifts are happening, and they're already nudging Conservative attentions somewhere rather different.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/toryconference.conservatives1">Continue reading...</a>Conservative conferenceSocietyPoliticsConservativesEconomicsUK newsMarket turmoilCredit crunchSocial mobilityTaxMoneyConferencesConservative conference 2008Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:32:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/30/toryconference.conservatives1John Harris2008-09-30T19:32:40Z